


Hills & Valley

by IShouldBeWriting



Series: The Poetry Of War [2]
Category: Avengers (Comics), The Sentinel
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-09 19:35:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/777227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha's not usually one to crave touch, much less to become obsessed with the comfort she finds in a particular part of someone else's body.  So that little obsession she has with the valley between Maria's breasts, it might be just a bit unnerving...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hills & Valley

Finding herself obsessed with the plains and valleys created by her guide’s nude body had been an unusual development in Natasha Romanoff’s psyche. Not that she had a problem with finding herself fixated on a woman. Despite, or perhaps because of the Red Room’s indoctrination, Natasha had long ago stopped caring about which gender she touched. If she were honest with herself, she couldn’t even remember a time when she’d even had an opinion as to which gender she preferred. 

She knew that there was a place locked deep inside of her that quietly resonated with thoughts of that sort. Perhaps there was an answer buried somewhere in the impenetrable darkness of the childhood she could no longer remember. (Not that she didn’t have memories of being a child, but she knew now that those memories weren’t to be trusted, were most likely manufactured, planted inside her brain by the men who’d once sought to control and use her as their perfect weapon.) Perhaps it was because she’d been so young when the training began? But no, those thoughts also took her too close to opening the Pandora’s box which within. Bringing them to the surface tasted too much like the work Phil Coulson and Clint Barton had done to deprogram her. And Natasha was no fool. She had no intention of ever breaching the barriers between her conscious mind and those long buried memories of the person she might once have been before. They’d all worked too hard for her to risk prying.

No, for the moment, she was contented in her relaxation. Natasha lay with her body wrapped around Maria, the other woman propped up by pillows so she could work on her tablet. Spine gently curled, Natasha’s blood red curls spread across the taller woman’s upper arm and shoulder. Her head rested comfortably in the valley of space between the other woman’s shoulder and her breast. At present Maria’s fingers were absentmindedly toying with Natasha’s hair, making her want to purr. One of Natasha’s legs mirrored Maria’s. Their toned, muscular thighs pressed together just the way Natasha liked it without a breath’s worth of space between them. Her other leg curved, inner thigh resting on Maria’s pubic bone while her instep idly caressed the rounded shape of her guide’s knee. Beneath the light blanket, Natasha’s fingers traced invisible patterns over the dip and swell of space from Maria’s ribs to her hip. 

Tilting her head slightly, Natasha could see the tiny hint of a smile playing about Maria’s mouth that said she was enjoying the attention, reveling in her Sentinel’s touch. No one who saw the two of them in public or on duty would ever have suspected how deeply Maria needed to be touched. Until they’d bonded, Natasha herself would never have even thought of it. But watching her hungrily as the bond formed, reading the nuances of Maria’s movements when she was on duty, had given Natasha the key. Despite her ice woman reputation, the attractive young captain had a deep well of compulsive, needy skin hunger. And Natasha was all too willing to spend every single off duty moment trying to fill the depth of that void. Nothing could settle her nerves these days like the warm silk of Maria’s skin.

The first time after they’d bonded that a mission had gone wrong had been a revelation for them both. Despite having focused on the low soothing reassurance of Maria’s voice in her ear, it wasn’t until they’d both been safely back from behind enemy lines that Natasha had been able to stand down. She’d twitched and prowled uneasily through the debriefing until Director Fury had shaken his head and ordered her and Maria to get out. As soon as they’d been in private, the moment the door to Maria’s quarters closed, Natasha had sunk to her knees, yanked the tails of Maria’s uniform shirt out of her trousers, and buried her face against the other woman’s belly.

It had shaken both of them to their core; the hard truth of what their bond meant. Neither of them would ever be lonely again. But neither would they be able to survive being parted. Thankfully, SHIELD –and Director Fury in particular- had proven very respectful of the limitations of Sentinel/guide bonds. Either they both went out on a mission together, or one of them was safely “home” providing intel and handling the logistics end of the operation while the other was in the line of fire. The other thing which had changed was that Natasha was no longer assigned to deep cover missions unless Maria was placed nearby as her handler. So long as they could talk to each other, so long as they weren’t separated for more than a week’s time, it didn’t interfere with their abilities to perform their individual duties.

Their most recent mission hadn’t been physically challenging for Natasha but it had pushed both their limits to the utmost. She’d been under cover for a fortnight. Maria, assigned to feeding and retrieving intelligence from Natasha, had been painfully close but with the exception of a few stolen hours one night midway through the operation, it had been deemed too risky for them to actually meet. The separation had tested both of their sanity.

Surprisingly enough it’d been one of Clint’s smart-assed comments which gave them the key to minimizing the impact their separation had on their ability to perform their duties. “Never would have figured you for the type to break under so little pressure, Captain. Next thing I know we’re going to find you burying your nose in her dirty laundry like some love-sick teenager.”

At the time, Maria had scowled at the archer, stalking off toward the back of the run down flat they were renting as temporary cover. But later that night she’d given in to temptation as she re-read the carefully penned coded message to her Sentinel. She’d slid the paper under her shirt, allowing it to pick up the nuances of her scent as it rested against her skin as she slept. Deep inside her in that indefinable place where their bond had taken root, Maria knew exactly how close Natasha was to slipping her control. She’d do anything, even putting up with Clint’s remarks, if it would stack the odds in favor of her Sentinel’s safe return.

Carefully smoothing and folding the sheet into its envelope the following morning, Maria prayed. She held her breath, waited for the pre-agreed response time to pass. It was all she could do not to rip the valuable message in her haste when Natasha’s reply finally arrived. The moment she saw the corner of the paper, Maria knew that her gamble had paid off. Like the message she’d sent two days prior, the paper of Natasha’s response was crinkled, it’s pristine surface marred by creases as if it had been carelessly handled. Knowing otherwise, Maria held the sheet up to her face and inhaled deeply. Her Sentinel’s scent filled her and finally she could allow the growing subconscious tension she’d been holding to flow out of her limbs.


End file.
